A tropical wave moved off the African coast on July 28th. The
disturbed area moved across the
central tropical Atlantic and moved to the north of the Lesser
Antilles, approaching the Bahamas
by August 5th. Early on the 6th, the thunderstorm cluster became
organized into a tropical
depression. Steadily developing over the next few days, Belle
became a major hurricane early
on the 9th while moving northward towards the coast of Long
Island. It struck western Long
Island before moving northeast and losing tropical character over New
England. The graphic
below shows the storm total rainfall for Belle, using data provided
from the National Climatic Data
Center in Asheville, North Carolina.